by Kal Spriggs
“What if he doesn't want to deal?” Rackham asked.
“Then we'll use your contingency,” Reese snapped. “You said you'd selected the men for that, right?”
“Yeah,” Rackham nodded his head, “It's just… we didn't expect to have to move so soon.”
“Have them ready,” Reese said. “I'll meet you there.”
“Where will you be?” Rackham asked.
“Finding out what I can about this warship,” Reese said. And praying that Copley doesn't know enough to sell me out.
***
Chapter X
Sapphire City, Sapphire
Neutral Space
December 12, 2407
Alannis wrinkled her nose at the smell of rotting fish, sewage, and garbage. Sapphire City obviously took their sanitary health very seriously. The rich, powerful smell slammed into her as she stepped off the shuttle and the cool moist air clung to her in an unpleasant fashion. Chief Petty Officer Darani mentioned they use their waste for fertilizer, she thought as her eyes watered, apparently they want very fertile soil here in the city.
What a lovely place, she thought sardonically, I wonder if they have time-shares?
She looked over as Chuni gave her a wave. The big, female Ghornath stood well over the other crew. “Alannis, I thought I would tag along with you, if that would be alright.”
Alannis looked over at Lieutenant Commander Douglass, who seemed absorbed in his datapad, probably reviewing the map they had of the town. “Sure, I don't see why it would be a problem.” They had a small group as it was, a couple of techs from the tactical department, herself and the Lieutenant Commander.
Lieutenant Montief had one squad of their Marine contingent and Alannis sort of wished she could have gone with them. Then again, with how powerful the smell of fish was here... well, she didn't really want to think about how the markets would smell.
“This way,” Lieutenant Commander Douglass said after a moment. Alannis waited for Tech Specialist Spurlock and Petty Officer Peck to lead the way and then fell in behind them. All of them had sidearms and Alannis swept her gaze around as they exited the secure landing platform.
The platform opened up onto part of the street. The spaceport here seemed to be pretty busy, far busier than she would have expected for how remote the system was. Clearly there was significant money to be made in the illicit trades that Sapphire City offered.
She froze as her eyes caught a shock of pale blonde hair out of the corner of her eye. She turned and for just a moment, she saw a familiar face, but then the crowd shifted, too fast for her to be sure she'd seen what she thought. No, she thought, that's not possible.
There was no way Reese would be here. Even if he was, he wouldn't dare show his face someplace where she could identify him. Just for what he'd done to her he faced at least ten years in prison. For his involvement in Admiral Mannetti's work on Halcyon, where local workers had been executed and the planet's citizens had been robbed and raped, he'd probably receive a much longer sentence than that.
“Is there a problem?” Chuni asked.
Alannis shook those thoughts off. She saw that the others had drawn ahead and she hurried to catch up. “No,” Alannis said, “no problem... I just thought I recognized someone.”
“Who would you know in a place like this?” Chuni asked. The derision in her voice was plain to hear. Given the volume with which she directed it, Alannis wasn't surprised at the glares that passersby leveled on the two of them.
“No one I'd care to meet again,” Alannis said bitterly. She must have imagined it. Reese wouldn’t be caught dead in a place like this.
“Where are we going?” Chuni asked after a long moment.
“Seeing what we can about how this place is made up,” Alannis answered as they turned down a street. She joined the others in moving out of the way as a heavily laden truck drove past. She frowned as she realized that most of the occupants were Chxor... and that they were chained to the truck.
Slaves, she realized with shock.
“Ma'am,” Tech Specialist Spurlock asked, “are they...”
“Yes,” Alannis growled, “those are slaves.” Not that she was particularly fond of Chxor, but slavery was something she detested. Two men armed with rifles sat on the back of the truck and one saw her and gave her a smirk as the truck drove past.
Now that she knew what to look for, she saw a number of human men and women wearing collars. Most of them had their heads down and didn't make eye contact. A mixed gang of Chxor and human laborers, bound together by chains around their ankles, shoveled waste into a compost pen while two more humans stood guard.
She saw slaves everywhere. In fact, they almost seemed to outnumber the free men and women she saw walking around. This wasn't a healthy society, it was one built upon dehumanizing and debasing people.
The Captain might think that they could work something out with the ruler of this place, but she didn't think anyone who could tolerate that sort of thing was someone she would trust.
***
Reese ducked back behind the low wall and pulled out his comm. He fumbled with it with wooden fingers until he finally activated it. “Rackham, its Reese.” He hadn't wanted to try to hack the United Colonies communications, but the spaceport network, such as it was, was easy enough. So he'd been able to find out exactly where the shuttle would land.
“Yeah?” Rackham asked, “We’re getting ready for the meet, you going to make it?”
“No,” Reese said, forcing himself to breath. He'd seen the squad of United Colonies Marines lead the way out, in two teams. Just the kind of thing he would do if he wanted to hit a meeting location from two sides. “Call it off. Tell your supplier to meet us at the ship. Tell him we'll double his asking price, but we sell now or there's no deal.”
Where is Alannis's group going? He wondered. It didn't matter, he supposed. They weren't heavily armed, which meant they weren't part of the group here to take him down.
“Double the price?” Rackham asked in shock. “Reese, that's a lot of gold, I'm not sure...”
“Don't interrupt me again, Rackham,” Reese snarled. “That ship is here for me. They have to know about this sale... which means either you or your supplier tipped them off. We need to get this sale done and get out of here, fast.”
“I'll call him, but if they're looking for us, they might have someone at the ship, Reese,” Rackham said nervously.
Shit, Reese thought, he's right. The sad part was, he'd spent so long working with and against half-assed incompetents that he had forgotten just how methodical real professionals would be.
What he needed was a distraction. Something to get them to focus elsewhere. Better yet, two distractions, one in space and one on the ground. That would let Rackham get his ships into orbit and out of the system. Unless Lucius sent a whole fleet out here...
No, there was such a thing as being too paranoid. If Lucius had a fleet to spare, he would have come in and leveled the planet. He wasn't the type to tolerate a nest of slavers and pirates like this... knocking them off would just be the icing on the cake to stopping Reese's special purchase.
Pirates and slavers, he thought, that's it...
“Rackham, you've got contacts with the slavers, right?” Reese asked.
“Yeah,” Rackham said. “Ricky One-Eye and Two-Fingers. Why, you think we need some labor?” Under other circumstances, Reese would have been disgusted by the very idea of using slave labor. Right now, though, he was too busy to really care.
Reese peeked over the wall, just as Alannis and the Ghornath with her disappeared around the corner. “No... but they probably won't be too happy to see that warship up there. Can you tell them that it's a raid? They're going to impound their ships, free their slaves?”
“What?!” Rackham said, “Reese, if I tell them that, they'll attack! Worse than that, when they find out I lied to them, they'll come after me!”
Reese smiled, “Rackham, you haven't seen the United Colonies Fle
et in action, so I'll cut you some slack. When they and whatever pirates or mercenaries they can hire go after that cruiser, they're all going to die.”
“Oh...” Rackham said. “So I wouldn't have to worry about them coming after me, then?”
“Exactly,” Reese said. “But try to get in with them, coordinate a bit, so we know when they launch their attack. That's when we'll make a break for it.” That wouldn't be enough of a distraction, though. Especially not if it was “King” Copley who had sold Reese out. They needed to distract the Marines on the ground...
“Your strike team, they're ready to go?” Reese asked as he moved from behind the wall to edge around the corner. A few hundred meters away, he saw the small group of Fleet personnel. Whatever mission they had, it had to be important if Lucius had ordered his sister along. Maybe they're doing intelligence, he thought, setting up an outpost, perhaps? Yet they were in uniform.
“Yeah,” Rackham said.
“Well, I have a job for them,” Reese said as he stared after his ex-wife.
***
Captain Daniel Beeson frowned a bit as he came to King Copley's “palace.” At first glance it didn't look much different from the other local buildings: a mix of rough-cut stone and prefabricated metal and composite structure. Yet Daniel noticed that it seemed to burrow into the side of the mountain that overlooked the harbor. Possibly a bunker, he thought, clearly built with an eye towards defense.
A dozen men, the best equipped he'd seen so far, stood out front, their faces stern and their eyes watchful. They wouldn't have passed muster in the United Colonies Marines and they had a mix of ragged beards, long or spiked hair, and tattoos... but they held their weapons in a professional manner and their gear wasn't junk.
In fact, he recognized the rifles they carried. They were M-121's of Nova Roman manufacture. Clearly their boss wanted them well-equipped.
“Captain Beeson?” A smiling woman asked. She wasn't wearing body armor like the others. Instead she wore a somewhat-battered ship's suit. In the cold, damp air, it probably was more comfortable than normal clothing.
“Yes,” Daniel nodded.
“Follow me, please,” she said. “King Copley is waiting for you.”
She led the way in. The building decor was an odd mix of wealth and hardscrabble make-do. There weren't a lot of luxuries. No paintings, no piles of furs or gold, none of the pirate stereotypes from holovids... or from what he'd seen of Admiral Mannetti's ships and base.
On a world with no native plant life, it wasn't a surprise that the floor was poured concrete and that the walls were prefabricated metal. Nor was it a surprise that the building had no central heating system, just portable space heaters run with power conduits along the floor.
More surprising was the obvious signs of significant defenses. Daniel noticed firing positions and back-up defensive points. The corridor had several dog-legs to prevent blasts from traveling down the length of the corridor. Past the opening, Daniel's suspicions were confirmed as the complex bored into the solid rock of the island and reinforcing iron struts supported that rock.
Copley's throne room lay in a large, natural chamber. Daniel didn't know much about geology, but he wondered if it was the magma chamber from an extinct volcano. Either Copley has a good sense of humor about these things or else he figured the defensive capabilities outweighed any jokes, Daniel thought. Most of the floor was leveled, although there was a deep and rather ominous pit at the center of the chamber.
“Welcome!” Copley was a big, ugly man, with a bushy beard going to gray. His throne was a battered-looking command chair, complete with a variety of displays and controls. “Good to meet you, Captain Beeson, welcome to my lair.”
A sense of humor, then, Daniel thought with resignation, or at least he thinks so.
“I have to say I'm still a bit surprised at the warm welcome from you,” Daniel said.
“I may be a pirate,” Copley smiled, “but I'm neither stupid nor am I without a certain amount of vision.” He eyed Daniel's Marine escort. “Marines, eh?” There was an edge of something to his voice, almost a bit of challenge.
“You don't approve?” Staff Sergeant Witzke asked in a flat voice.
“Oh, no!” Copley grinned, “I have some respect for what you do. I've got twenty-one years of ground forces experience... before all this, of course.” He gave a wave. “I thought you might want to speak in a more private setting, so I sent most of my associates away. There's just myself and my trusted officers.”
“I appreciate that,” Daniel said. He didn't know just how much he trusted the pirate's officers, but he wasn't going to say that to the man's face.
“Now, then, besides resupply, what brings your ship all the way out here?” Copley said. “Exploration? Charting new trade lanes?”
Wouldn't you like a trade route to come through your system, Daniel thought. “No, it's a purely military endeavor. Following up on an attack that happened in the Gebreynr system and another one in the Iota Persei system. Something of a reprisal mission.”
James Copley winced at the word “reprisal” as well he should. The best and most secure way to eliminate pirates was to wipe out their bases of operations. In this case, that would mean the destruction of everything he'd built. “Well, I can assure you that my people had nothing to do with any attacks on either system.”
“Captain Arvad operated out of this system,” Daniel said.
“He's dead,” Copley said. “And good riddance, the man was incompetent and he ran up a number of debts before his ships broke orbit.”
“There are other pirates who operate here,” Daniel replied.
“Pirates and slavers and mercenaries,” Copley nodded, “and plenty of outlaws, smugglers, and general scum. There's also folks who just want to be left alone and to do their business in peace. We're building a new world out here, Captain, and while I've made some deals with some of the worst scum... well, it isn't as if your United Colonies is out here to do business with, is it?”
Daniel shrugged. “No... but that doesn't excuse the murder, rape, and enslavement that you have profited from, does it?”
Copley looked away, “No... no it doesn't.” He spoke in a low voice, pitched only for Daniel's ears. “Look, Captain Beeson, I know your cruiser up there could level everything down here, but is it really worth it? I've killed. I've profited from the trade going on here... which, yes, includes slavery and stolen goods. But if you destroy what I've built here, you'll undo the little bit of civilization and order I've brought to this system. As soon as you leave, others will slink in and set up shop. The planet is too valuable to be abandoned. There's not enough here to warrant the Colonial Republic's interest and we're too far out for anyone else. That means I'll be replaced by some other scum, maybe someone who allows worse things than I have.”
Daniel's eyes narrowed, “Well, it isn't as if I can allow you to continue as you are, either.”
James Copley gestured at his conference table, “Then sit, we can discuss it.” He gave a grin, “I'm sure we can come to an agreement that your nation can tolerate.”
***
“That bastard Copley is selling us out!” Rickey “One Eye” Johnson growled.
His lieutenants cringed back from him. Bunch of spineless cowards, he thought. Then again, he hadn't picked them for their brains or courage. Smart and capable wasn't a description he wanted for any of his officers. He'd made that mistake once and lost his eye to his second in command when the bastard had led a mutiny.
He died too easy, Rickey thought as his hand went to his ruined eye. “What have we got still in orbit?” Rickey snarled.
“Just the two frigates, boss,” one of his men whined. “Most of our ships are landed, offloading cargo.”
“Yeah,” Rickey grunted, “that's what I thought.” If all his ships had been in orbit, he would have just taken his chances and made a run for it. “We're going to have to call Two-Fingers.”
His men shifted back from him when he sa
id that name. Then again, Two-Fingers was normally the competition. Worse than that, he was a mean-enough bastard that even Rickey was a bit afraid of him. “I'll do it.” Rumor had it that Two-Fingers had been from a rich family back in the Centauri Confederation. Apparently he'd done something back there so horrible that even his family connections couldn't save him.
Rickey limped over to his ship's comm and brought up his communications. In a surprisingly short amount of time, Two-Fingers appeared on his ship's display. “Rickey,” Two-Fingers said, “I take it you heard about that Cowardly Copley plans to sell us out to the Navy boys up in orbit?”
Rickey gave a jerky nod. He couldn't quite manage to make eye contact, even on the display. Two-Fingers was a tall, gaunt man. His voice was calm, but as always there was an edge to his voice, one part mocking and one part unstable. You never knew what Two-Fingers was going to do. Although he booked himself as a pirate, Rickey knew he got most of his money from slaving.
“Your two little pea-shooters wouldn't scratch the armor of a real warship,” Two-Fingers smirked. “So if you want out of this alive, you need my help. You need fighting ships and I... well, I need some people with guns and the will to use them.” Two-Fingers gave a broad wave of his hands, “You do know how to use guns, right Rickey?”
“Yeah,” Rickey growled. “What's your plan?”
“Oh, you'll like it,” Two-Fingers snickered, “Copley thinks he's going to get a better deal... well, I think Sapphire needs a new leader and I wouldn't mind adding a Navy ship to my fleet.”
“You're taking Sapphire and the cruiser?” Rickey snapped, “What the hell is in this for me?!”
“Rickey... Rickey,” Two-Fingers smiled and Rickey shivered. “Do what I tell you and you get the best reward of all... you get to live.”
***
Alannis frowned as her group rounded a corner. Lieutenant Commander Douglass had sent Tech Specialist Spurlock and Petty Officer Peck back to the shuttle while their group continued on. The streets, until now, had been crowded and busy.
